With Delhi polls 100 days away, AAP and BJP lock horns over 'health model'

The efficacy of Delhi’s ‘health model’ versus the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme is set to shape the contours of the political contestation between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the Assembly polls in the national capital.

 

The polls for Delhi’s 70-member Legislative Assembly are three-and-a-half months away, slated for mid-February 2025. The AAP, which has ruled Delhi continuously since 2015, has projected its affordable “health model”, comprising primary health clinics, polyclinics and super-speciality hospitals, as a success story. The BJP disputes the AAP’s claims.

 

On Wednesday, the Delhi unit of the BJP termed the AAP’s “health model” a hoax, and accused the Delhi government of depriving its elderly from the benefits of the Centre’s scheme. In response, Delhi’s health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj dubbed the Centre’s scheme a “failed initiative”, and said Delhi’s “health model” provided free healthcare, which made the central scheme redundant.

 

Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha MPs, all of whom belong to the BJP, filed a writ petition in the High Court against the AAP government's decision to not implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Delhi. In a letter to AAP chief and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena said the government of the Union Territory should implement the scheme. He alleged that the Delhi government’s “health model” was riddled with corruption and unavailability of equipment in hospitals that it runs.

 

In his letter, Saxena appended media reports that pointed to irregularities in Delhi government-run “Mohalla” clinics and hospitals.

 

The Delhi BJP’s move came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the expanded Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), which provides health coverage to all senior citizens aged 70 and above, regardless of their income. Modi had lamented that governments in Delhi and West Bengal have refused to roll out the scheme, and “apologised” to all the elderly aged 70 and above in the two states.

 

According to a 2021 study, Elderly in India, by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the elderly (those above 60 years of age) comprised 5.2 per cent of Delhi's the population in 2001, which increased to 6.8 per cent in 2011, and was estimated to be 9.3 per cent, or almost 2 million, in 2021. The study projected that Delhi’s elderly population would be 12.5 per cent, or a little over 3 million, by 2031. According to Delhi’s latest draft electoral roll, the UT has 15.35 million electors.

 

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal alleged that the Ayushman Bharat scheme is riddled with scams according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

 

Bharadwaj argued that the eligibility requirements for the Ayushman Bharat scheme were restrictive, and if implemented, would keep a majority of Delhi’s poor out of its purview. Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme for beneficiaries up to the age of 70, owners of computers, laptops, refrigerators, telephones, washing machines, and two wheelers were ineligible, he claimed.   

All the Commotion 

- Political context: The upcoming Delhi Assembly elections will feature a contest between AAP's health model and the BJP's Ayushman Bharat scheme 

- AAP’s position: AAP promotes its health model as successful, providing free healthcare through primary health clinics, polyclinics, and super-specialty hospitals 

- BJP’s criticism: The party labels AAP's health model a "hoax" and accuses the party of denying elderly citizens access to the Ayushman Bharat scheme